MACHESNEY PARK — Even with one of its stars, Laytwan Porter, out of town, Auburn stormed through the Harlem Boys Summer Basketball League unscathed.

The Knights capped it off with a 57-40 win over Belvidere in the championship game Monday night, providing what some of them hope will be a little look into the near future.

“Sure, we want to gain some confidence; build some momentum,” said Malik Cobb, who led Auburn with 15 points in the title game. “And now’s the time to do it. We want to be a lot better when it’s time to go for real, but we expect the same outcome.”

Alonte Bjorlie added 14 points and Antoine Pittman scored 10, and there was little doubt of the outcome after Auburn pulled away to an 11-2 lead on early 3s from Cobb and Bjorlie. Belvidere sliced the lead to 11 early in the second 20-minute, running-clock half, with D’Ante Barnes scoring six straight points.

But the Knights opened up their game again, and in the end used eight 3-pointers and 16 points off the fast break to finish undefeated in the league.

But not everybody on the Knights’ bench was upbeat about the untouched summer-league run. Auburn head coach Bryan Ott admitted his team has played well enough to win on most summer nights — the Knights’ only summertime loss came by three to Normal last weekend in the Morris Shootout championship game — but he can find plenty of areas that need improving.

“We only lost one game this summer, but I don’t really know what that means,” Ott said. “If our guys think that because of our summer record, we’re just going to storm through this thing next year, they’re in for a rude awakening. … We need plenty of work.”

So, too, does Belvidere, as was seen from the title-game setback. Still, they finished the shortened regular season in a five-way tie for second with a 6-2 record, and held off DeKalb 46-43 in the semifinal to get a shot at the Knights.

“We learned a lot about ourselves this summer, and we got close,” Barnes said. “It was important for us to get to that title game, and even losing like this can be a good thing. I think it exposes our flaws, and shows what we’ve got to work on before next season to make sure it doesn’t happen then.”

DeKalb defeated Forreston — which fell 71-34 to Auburn in the other semi — 46-45 on a buzzer-beater in the third-place game.